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Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998

QUESTION ?

Posts

QUESTION ?

#1

QUESTION ?

Jim King-Iquitos,Peru

>Have I been sleeping all these years? I just read a very interesting story on the internet about drying wood. It says that if you dry the thick wood vertically it will not crack. I just made the tour of our shop with about 1500 blanks stored in both flat and vertical I found that the vertical pieces have virtually no cracks and the flat stored on stickers have about the normal 20% and need rework. Of all the turners in this area 95% of the work is end turned green wood and does not crack, few if any will turn a flat sawn piece. In checking our aged finished turnings I find the same results. Has anyone else had this experience ? The web site is http://www.billswoodcreations.com/dry-wood.html

Re: QUESTION ?

#2

Old timers used to..

TD

>stand the fresh sawn lumber on end for a couple of days prior to stacking it. It is amazing how much sap will run out during the first 2 days. I have also been told that you can speed up drying by standing a log on end in a tub of sand and keep the sand temp up to 120 degrees or better.

TD

Re: QUESTION ?

#3

Re: Old timers used to..

Jim King-Iquitos,Peru

>TD: When we work with Balsa Wood we always stand the logs on end in the jungle for at least a week and they lose about 80% of their weight but have never done it with other species. Now I ask myself why ?

Re: QUESTION ?

#4

Re: Old timers used to..

Jerry Whitaker

>The Japanese have stood logs on end for years. Due to the natural flow of sap both up and down vertically, it makes sense that a log would lose moisture at a faster rate due to gravitational forces. I have done this for several years myself and believe that it works. For the past two years, I have trimmed Christmas trees and stood them vertically and they dry pretty fast. By the way, you can make some pretty nice Christmas ornaments from Christmas trees.

Re: QUESTION ?

#5

Re:most important QUESTION ?

Duane C.Leach

>I cut some log sections about 20" long form a Walnut tree of about 16" in diameter. The tree had been cut down about 4 months earlier and stacked horizontality on top of other logs off the ground.. I stood them on end on the pickup tail gate. Part on part off the tail gait. The water ran out in a stream.I was amazed at how much water they held.

Most important question. Which end do you stand up? The root end or the top end. Probably the top end down. Becasue that's the way the sap normaly runs RITE.

Just kidding guys

Happy turning

Re: QUESTION ?

#6

Re: Old timers used to..

John K Jordan

>>it makes sense that a log would lose moisture at

>a faster rate due to gravitational forces.

Then rapidly spinning the logs (as in a huge centrifuge) should dry the wood even faster. But I would not want to be in the same county when one broke loose.

JKJ

Re: QUESTION ?

#7

Re: Old timers used to.. (I must be one of them)

Russ Fairfield

>I must be one of those "Old Timers".

I can remember "way back when", when wood was stood on end, spun in a lathe, blasted with an air hose, hung from a clothsline, and end-grain vessels were set top-down so the moisture ran down to the rim so that would be the last part to dry. We also used wrap it in paper, soak it in shellac (alcohol), boil it in a wash tub, bury it in sawdust, and even dip it in sealing wax.

It seems like it was only yesterday. {8>)